Quote Originally Posted by 757690 View Post
I guess I never bought into the narrative that Leake had great command or pitching smarts. He might have an high I.Q., but that doesn't make him a smart pitcher. When I watch him pitch, I don't see anything that tells me that he has great command or knows how to pitch.

Think about it, if he really did have great command of four pitches, he wouldn't be giving up 26 homers a season. There are plenty of pitchers with similar velocity as Leake who have out up much better numbers, Wainright, Lohse, Colby Lewis, Dempster, etc, so we can't just blame it on him being a soft tosser. There really isn't anyone who has great command and pitching smarts who has been has mediocre as Leake. If the Reds really did think had great command and pitching smarts when they drafted him, they clearly were wrong.
Someone with a career 6.2% walk rate must be doing something right as far as command is concerned.